Applied Orbit Perturbation and Maintenance, Second Edition (Aerospace Press)

Over the last 60 years, system engineers and space mission designers/analysts have invented and refined various orbits to meet the challenges of space technology applications. The first edition of this book summarized the perturbation theories and control (stationkeeping) algorithms needed to understand the dynamics, stability, and maintenance of those orbits. The book has served as an important resource, due to its collection of methods of orbital control and its communication of perturbation theories.

This second edition contains three new chapters that will enrich the reader's understanding of major perturbation theories through illuminating derivations. The content now includes space debris, the space catalog, and new advances in atmospheric density models. Readers will also find the new material in cluster formation design and constellation maintenance very useful.

Dr. Chia-Chun (George) Chao has fifty years of experience in astrodynamics covering mission design and analysis, orbit perturbations, stationkeeping and formationkeeping strategies, orbit determination, and atmospheric refraction calibrations. He developed the Chao model of troposphere calibration while working at JPL. He is a retired casual engineer with The Aerospace Corporation, as well as an associate fellow of AIAA. He has two U.S. patents in formationkeeping methods.

Dr. Felix Hoots has over forty-five years of experience applying analytic methods to challenging problems in orbit modeling, space surveillance, and space situational awareness. He is a fellow of The Aerospace Corporation and a fellow of the American Astronautical Society, from which he received the Brouwer Award in 2017. He holds a U.S. patent for modeling the evolution and visualization of a satellite breakup debris cloud.